


floating shelter

by enmity



Category: Persona 2, Persona Series
Genre: Eternal Punishment, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 23:16:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13600521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: “I was just passing by,” she says by way of explanation for why she’s here. Her arms are crossed; her face looks concerned, and briefly Anna thinks Mayuzumi’ll have wrinkles if she strains so much to keep looking at her like that, like she cares. “It’ll be evening soon. Do you need a lift home?”





	floating shelter

**Author's Note:**

> classes got cancelled and i arrived 5 hours too early so hey why not! pretty sure i contradicted something or the other in canon but anyway this is p2ep references tatsuya's scenario etc etc

Therapy goes more smoothly today than it did the week before. She visits Noriko on her way out, though not for long; the younger girl clasps her hands in hers and says, “you shouldn’t worry about me,” and there’s something sad about her smile and her dry, shining eyes, and Noriko’s always been a terrible liar anyway but Anna doesn’t say so, just nods instead.

Going to the hospital always leaves her a little bit sick – starchy white sheets and stale meals and too many adults regarding her with their so-called sympathy and identical upturned smiles – and as she steps out the room it takes a moment to regain her barely-lost bearings. She pauses by the banister, a hand curled around her forearm, and she doesn’t need to remind herself that she’s past that now and that she’s stronger than this, and it’s stupid and pointless but she does it anyway. She’s the track ace who turned into the girl who got her leg broken and now she’s just _her_. She’s just Anna, and she’s not yet sure of what to think of that.

The crisp autumn chill hits her once she’s outside. Anna lingers for a few seconds, dry leaves crumbling under her feet, searching her bag for her lighter and cigarettes, and when she looks back up Yuki— Mayuzumi is _staring_ at her, and Anna blinks, recognition flashing over her, the barely-lit cigarette still dangling between two fingers.

“Put that out,” Mayuzumi demands, sharply, and Anna thinks of retorting something terse and callous and apathetic, the old fallback egging at her, but she shrugs instead, deciding against it. After Zodiac, after Noriko – she thinks she owes it to Mayuzumi to listen to her, or at least pretend that she does. “I was just passing by,” she says by way of explanation for why she’s here. Her arms are crossed; her face looks concerned, and briefly Anna thinks Mayuzumi’ll have wrinkles if she strains so much to keep looking at her like that, like she cares. “It’ll be evening soon. Do you need a lift home?”

“No,” Anna says, “but you’re just going to keep pushing until I accept, right? Because you care. So I’ll go ahead and save you the effort.” She sounds more amused than she feels, or maybe it’s the other way around. She looks ahead, and then to the sidewalk they’re walking down on, side by side.

Mayuzumi’s stride is longer. Anna’s bad leg still aches a bit when she drags it, but it’s a dull sort of pain that she barely remembers, until the moment it hits. “You know, I get it. I was a kid just like you once. I really was. So if you’re going to take someone’s advice, take it from me.”

Anna doesn’t reply because she doesn’t owe her that. There’s a strange sort of fondness in her voice that should irritate Anna, but doesn’t. For a moment she half-expects her head to hurt, mind pulsing with strange memories she isn’t sure are her own – not knowing why or where the urge came from – but it passes, and so she rolls her eyes instead, gaze turned away from her.

The drive is nearly silent; Mayuzumi looks at the road and Anna isn’t inclined for conversation, so she absently counts the street signs instead. She gives away her address and, as they turn a familiar corner, Mayuzumi speaks up.

“That girl – your junior … is she doing well?”

“She’s not badly injured. They say she’ll do a few more tests and she’ll be out in a day of two. …She tries too hard for my sake,” she adds, at last.

Mayuzumi flashes a small smile. “You’re surprised there’s someone who cares about you that much?”

 _She killed for me_ , Anna doesn’t say. _How do you live knowing someone did that for_ you _?_ “I am,” she says, quietly, though she knows she shouldn’t. She shouldn’t want to admit things to her this easily. Thankfully the conversation descends into a silence afterwards, neither companionable nor uncomfortable, that remains for the remainder of the drive.

“You should keep her around,” Mayuzumi says, her voice flat and matter-of-fact, as she brings the car to a stop, and Anna stills her hand against the car door. “It pays to have some true friends.” She considers for a moment, as though meaning to say something but holding back in the end. “And,” she reaches across the dashboard to touch Anna’s shoulder, and to her credit, Anna curbs the urge to pull herself away. There’s something in Mayuzumi’s eyes she can’t quite read and it needles at Anna, the sudden need to _know_ her that shouldn’t feel as compelling as it is. What’s the point? “And you’re not as bad as you think you are. Trust me.”

( _Trust me_ , she’d said, and handed her the slip of paper with two phone numbers scribbled on.)

“This reminds me. I never got the chance to… thank you, for helping us back then.” She feels something rise, unwelcome and unbidden to her face, so she turns her eyes towards her lap, the hand she’s laid absently on her knee, over her dark slacks. In the back of her mind she senses something lurking deep beneath her thoughts, on the near-brink of surfacing but never quite managing to do so. “I still have the number you gave me. I should’ve called.” Then, after a brief silence: “Will I see you again? Mayuzumi-san?”

Luck, wasn’t it, that Mayuzumi happened to be there? Maybe she’d never have seen her again, or maybe not at all.

The woman’s expression softens, a slight upturn of the curve of her red lips. “Yukino is fine,” she says, and then, “If you want me to.” 

Anna thinks she just might.


End file.
